Bloomberg: US probes possible insider trading linked to Iran-related statements

Sharp and highly timed movements in oil and equity markets amid the ongoing Middle East conflict have raised suspicions of possible insider trading tied to US political statements on Iran, Bloomberg reports after analysing exchange data.

The outlet noted that many traders executed highly well-timed deals and made enormous profits as a result. For example, on April 7 at 15:45 New York time, traders moved contracts for more than 15 million barrels of oil worth around $1.7 billion within two minutes. Approximately three hours later, US President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social about a two-week ceasefire in Iran. After trading resumed, WTI crude oil fell by more than 15%, while stocks rose by more than 2.5%.

The agency also cites events from March 23, which began 16 minutes before Trump published a message delaying US strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure by five days. From 06:49 to 06:51, traders sold contracts for at least 6 million barrels of oil and executed around 6,000 trades in US stock index futures worth more than $2 billion. After the president’s post was released at 07:05, Brent crude oil fell by 15%, while US stocks rose by nearly 4%.

Influential Democratic congressmen called such trades “too perfect” to be based solely on market skill or luck, Bloomberg notes. Amid growing political pressure, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has launched an investigation into possible signs of insider trading.

As the agency clarifies, no evidence has been found that White House staff profited from such activity. However, they were recently sent an email warning against the use of confidential information for trading.